The early afternoon light painted everything in Jessica's office with warm light. She looked through the dirty window before swiveling her chair around. Beth's meeting with Kara was still worrying her, but she needed to focus on something else at the moment.
Jessica leaned forward, elbows on her desk. "I need to ask you a question, and I need a straight answer."
Julia didn't even look up from the page she was reading. "Don't I always give you a straight answer?"
"Hardly ever. But I need one now. You're not going to like it. You'll just have to trust me."
Julia felt that Jess's comment about trust was a harbinger of something bad. Or at least something not good, which was practically the same thing. But Jess had earned her trust if anyone had.
She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her face with her free hand. "OK. What's the question?"
Jess was still sticking to non alcoholic refreshment, but she hadn't debased herself to such an extend to drink diet soda. She took a sip from her half empty bottle of Snapple before asking her question. "How did you go about setting up the process of hiding Trish's large cash deposits?"
Julia's hand came away from her face as her back straightened and her shoulders went back. "You're right, I don't like it. Client information is top secret. But if you're interested in setting something up for yourself, I can do that in less than an hour and spare you the gory details."
"It's the gory details I need. I'm trying to go through these shell companies. I'm looking for commonalities. But I'm totally in the dark for how this shit works."
"So you don't want specific data on how I set up any hypothetical client. Which, if anyone is listening in, I have no idea what she's talking about. And even if I did I would never do anything illegal. Because that would be wrong."
Jessica rolled her eyes and wished for the umpteenth time she had added bourbon to the glass bottle she had just drank from. "Whatever. Use me as an example if you want. Walk me through it. How would you set me up?"
Julia stood up and stretched before answering. Her data mining for anything related to Kabbalah ma'asit, both its history and any modern practice, had yielded what she'd expected. Any secret organization that had a web page wasn't worthy of the title. Still, some information existed, though she'd needed the services of an online translator to understand it. Or at least read it. The understanding part of the equation was still to come.
"I'd have a formation agent to set up a string of companies in different countries. Usually four. On paper it looks like they are all doing business with each other. Really all they're doing is pushing your money back and forth before sending it to an offshore numbered account."
"How do you hide who owns everything?"
"You always have to file paperwork for incorporation. That's what the formation agent does. They can also supply straw man director names, and corporation headquarter addresses. They handle any mail that someone like an agency or government might send to one of the companies or their directors. It costs extra, but if you're hiding billions in cash the extra cost isn't even a rounding error."
Jessica knew enough to know that you don't set up ten layers of shell companies unless you're hiding serious amounts of cash. "Are the directors real people?"
"Depends. They can be real people who do nothing but sign papers and collect a paycheck. They know nothing, so they can't spill anything. But if you want to keep control yourself I can give you five variations for Jessica, and five variations for Jones without breaking a sweat. Twenty five different names. It's still you, even though the names are spelled differently. If it ever came to it, the formation agent could claim some low wage employee that no longer works there spelled it they way they would back in the old country, wherever that might have been."
"Can you tell me who you use without giving too much away?"
"I use Commonwealth Company Formation Services in Belize. It's a popular country as a tax haven and a financial secrecy jurisdiction. I can't tell you any more than that, except that Belize has several hundred companies just like it, give or take the size of the company."
"Base price for setting up one shell company?"
"In US currency? About fourteen dollars."
Jessica's next question was preceded by a moment of stunned silence. "You're shitting me, right?"
"Brits would ask, are you taking the piss? Which I'm not. Basic incorporation paperwork is cheap. The more things you want them to do, the more expensive it is. Remember, formation agents are not illegal. Most legit companies use them to handle their incorporation paperwork, though they generally stick with the larger companies based in their home country. The shadier ones can have just two or three people in them. They close down and open a day later under a new name."
"Great. So in addition to weeding through a ton of bullshit shell companies, I also have to weed out the bullshit legit companies."
"Start with owner and director names. Look for a string of companies or alternating companies that are using variations of those names. Legit companies won't be doing that. Don't bother asking formation agents directly, they won't give you the time of day."
"Got it. Guess I have my work cut out for me."
"The good news is that none of the companies that employed our three stiffs were shell companies."
"That's the good news?" Trish asked Jessica as she adjusted a tensioner on her harness. It was something she had to do every time her equipment traveled. For the life of her, Trish could not find the problem. She admitted defeat finally, and swore to replace the entire assembly once she was back in New York and had some free time. It dawned on her that the vacation she was supposed to be enjoying had been noticeably lacking of leisure time as well.
At this rate, I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation.
She replaced the retainer before allowing the tension spring to return to its resting position.
"It also happens to be the bad news. It means that I'm starting from scratch trying to connect a real person to one of these goddamn companies."
Trish hated the tedium of sifting through mountains of paperwork, either physical or digital. She sympathized with her best friend. "That bad, huh?"
Jessica's loud exhalation warned Trish in advance. "The list is ten companies deep. It's a fucking mess."
Trish was a hands on sort of operative. Not so much a punch first and do research later to see if you need to apologize sort of person. She was known to sift through information for clues. Nothing on the level of Julia or or Malcolm. "Do they have anything in common?"
"Wow, what an insightful question. Why didn't I think of that? Oh wait, I did. They have nothing in common. Not the industry, not the country of registry, not fake directors names, nothing. Jules gave me a primer on shell companies. I'm gonna start getting into it. Should only take me about a year."
Trish reluctantly offered the advice she had been keeping to herself. "You know, you can ask Kyle for help, right?"
"What, and have him drooling all over me, trying to get into my pants like he does to you?"
"He does not try to get into my pants. Much. If you want him to back off introduce him to Luke. That should work."
"True. If I'm desperate I might do just that. But then it becomes his thing, and I want it to stay our thing."
"Your thing. I've got my own thing to work on. Malcolm can't do it? His new girlfriend hogging all his time as well as his cock?"
"Yes. But in her defense, it is one impressive cock."
"I might know someone else who's in need of one of those."
"Christ, I thought you were panting after what's her-name. Beth's sister."
"Oh fuck you, spoilsport."
"Fine. Be that way. So you're staying put for now."
"Yes. For now. The well might have dried up. If we don't see movement in the next few days I'll come home."
"What about Beth and Jules? When are they coming home?"
"Not sure. Jules has another reason to stick around. A tall, dark haired, blue eyed, reason. But she won't leave Beth alone for long, and right now Beth is in Harlem."
"That she is. Meeting with Aric's ex-girlfriend. I've been listening to my police scanner. No reports of catastrophic damage in the 130's. So how bad could it have gone?"
"Are you familiar with the phrase tempting fate? Because that's what you're doing now."
"I'll wave a bag of chicken parts over my head or something. How the fuck is this my life now? Running around with Supergirl, trying to find the assholes behind two biological weapons. Exactly the life I've been trying to avoid. You're a bad influence."
How am I the bad influence? You walked into a warehouse and found a WMD factory. You could've walked away, but you didn't."
"Yeah. How stupid does that make me?"
"None of the pages had blood on them, right?" Kate asked.
"Smartass," Barbara replied. "Besides, they were already bleeding when Helena and Sandra stuffed them into whatever car trunk or van they used to move them. I have no idea what happened after that, and I don't want to know."
"Neither do I. Total deniability is just what I need right now."
"For a change."
"For a change. So, you gonna keep me in suspense?"
"Well, to start off, they didn't pick those guys at random. Helena recognized them. They're two of Fredo's body men. The fact that they were in the middle of the action was evidence of how desperate Freddy was. They're usually glued to his side. So it was blind luck that we had someone along who could recognize manna from heaven when they saw it. Helena recognized them, and Sandra persuaded them to talk."
"Persuaded?"
"Remember the total deniability part of the conversation?"
"Sorry. You were saying?"
"I was saying they talked, and what they had to say was interesting."
The meeting was on a break. lunch containers were scattered around the conference table. Barbara had stepped out.
Meg didn't think that she was avoiding her. Probably she was calling other members of her team and sharing what they had learned.
Her team that I'm not supposed to ask about.
Like I'm not supposed to ask about those bruises.
Jim Gordon recounted for Kristen Wolf and Laurel Lance. "About a month ago Freddy gets a call requesting a face to face. They didn't hear the whole exchange, but they saw how their boss reacted. When he told them to set up at one of their secure locations they knew it was big."
Kristen nodded. "Face to face means no phones, nothing that can be intercepted. Secure location means that they felt the threat level was high, but they needed to take the meeting no matter what."
Laurel wasn't entirely convinced about the last part. "Or they were paranoid about cameras catching people coming and going to the meeting. Giancona's face is well known. Could have been the person he was meeting with that asked for the get together to be off site. Too many security cameras, doorbell cameras, other devices that could catch an image of a face or a license plate in the vicinity of the meeting."
Megan listened quietly as Barbara's father ran through the details of the report. She had heard it all already, but she could have missed something, or the two attorneys might have a new take on the contents of the envelope.
"Joe Pastorino was the other person," Commissioner Gordon continued. "He's Consigliere to Magdalena 'Silence' Fera. She rarely leaves Palermo these days, so my friends in the bureau tell me. So it's not unusual for her to send a mouthpiece. But when that instrument is Mr. Pastorino the topic of discussion is important."
"Does she ever summon people to come to her?" Laurel asked.
"Yes, but those people usually leave the meeting wrapped in industrial plastic. So they don't leak all over the vehicle that is transporting them to wherever they're going to spend the rest of eternity. In this case, according to Toby Andrews and Hamza Godino, the two men who provided the meat of this report, someone even bigger than Magdalena called in a favor owed. She passed it to Fredo because the subjects of that favor were within his sphere of influence, and he took it because he's a loyal Capo who enjoys breathing in and out."
"Those subjects being Oscar Floyd, Landon Thomas, and Randy Dunn."
"You are now officially up to speed. Andrews and Godino saw Pastorino hand Freddy a large Manila envelope and say, Silence needs you to do something. Favor for a friend."
"I don't know the particular lingo, but favor for a friend has code words written all over it."
"Maybe. In this case the code probably meant the boss wants this handled, don't ask questions."
"Which according to them, he didn't. He split the contents of the envelope into three, and had his own consigliere contract it out. They don't know who he hired, except that it was only the guy from Milwacky that got handled locally."
"So the summation of this report is that they didn't tell us anything useful."
"They confirmed what we suspected. Someone wanted something cleaned up but didn't have the local resources to do it themselves."
"Either because they'd already beat feet. Or because everyone involved were contractors. Scientists, security guards, lab workers, janitors, hitmen, everybody."
Barbara returned as State's Attorney Wolf was still speaking. Megan watched her tall figure as it progressed back to the conference table. Their eyes met for a moment as Barbara settled in her chair, and Meg felt the tightness around her heart loosen when Barbara smiled at her briefly.
"They confirmed what we suspected, but how does that help us? It's not like we can subpoena her and ask her who called in a solid."
"No, but it gives us a new body to focus on. We need resources in Italy. We need to know who she talked to, and when. Starting right before Freddy got summoned to a secret meeting."
"Anyone have anybody they can call in Italy or in the vicinity?"
That question was greeted by a unanimous silence. Laurel looked at Barbara, the only other person in the room who had participated in the raid on the ME's office and Freddy Giancona's hideout. Her eyes locked Barbara's and held them as she spoke.
Give us some time to make some calls," Laurel said.
The meeting wrapped up soon after. Hours later, back at her apartment, she took in the sight of Trish's gear sprawled across her apartment.
"Wow, that all fit in the one case?"
"Yes, but it's a pretty good size case," Trish replied as she kept her nose pressed to the lighted magnifying glass through which she was looking at a micro thermal camera module.
Laurel walked into her kitchen only to reappear a moment later with a bottle of wine and two glasses. She hesitated for a moment. She poured a glass for herself and took a series of sips before recounting everything she had learned during her absence. Afternoon was progressing towards evening at its usual pace. On any other Monday, Laurel would still be at her desk reading or writing a brief. That pattern was broken at irregular intervals when she was in court, or working on a job for Renee. It felt strange being home in the middle of the afternoon on a work day. That fact itself struck her as odd given everything else that she was dealing with at the moment.
Trish reseated the tiny module back into its socket before sitting up and stretching the muscles in her back. Laurel had to admit that the blond woman who looked so much like Sara had quite the figure. Her mind went back in time to the previous summer and Sara's gushing about how much she'd enjoyed working with Trish. Laurel hadn't needed her sister to translate how the two women had been working together to garner such praise. She knew Sara well enough to read the subtext.
Trish stood finally and retrieved her own glass and filled it a quarter of the way. Even at close range it was still hard for Laurel to remember that she was not Sara. They stood shoulder to shoulder, each of them observing the mess that Trish had made of the dining room table and living room floor as they sipped their wine.
"You know, I've never seen you in full kit. How much of this do you wear?" Laurel asked.
"Most of it. It's the weapons that I'll pick at the last minute, or a bit earlier if it's part of something bigger. This is my standard case. I have another one for special ops. Stuff I don't use every day."
"So you wear this every day?"
"Well, every night. When I'm not on vacation hunting down potential mass murders, or potential attempted mass murders in this case."
"Wow."
"You don't? The Canaries I mean."
"I used to. When I was younger. Now I fight for law and order in a variety of ways. Sometimes as a Canary, sometimes as a Paragon. Sometimes as an Assistant State's Attorney."
"That's a lot of fighting."
"You have no idea."